Energy price cap rise and Clean Heat Market Mechanism launch: comment

"Bills going up again is a stark reminder that we're not out of the energy crisis woods yet. Despite falling from their peak, gas prices remain volatile having reached a two-year high in early February. Those heating their homes with a gas boiler know the instability of the past few years. Starting today the Government's Clean Heat Market Mechanism will see manufactures compete to sell more electric heat pumps to replace boilers, bringing prices down. These heat pumps will increasingly run off British renewables whereas gas boilers will be ever-more reliant on foreign gas imports as the North Sea output continues its inevitable decline.
 
"The UK could have been on its way to greater energy security a year earlier, but the gas boiler manufacturers lobbied hard for a delay. A great deal of fuss was made over sales targets that history now shows the industry would have hit anyway. Some manufacturers added a self-imposed ‘boiler tax’, charging consumers an additional £110 to the price of a boiler last year which the companies themselves, not the government, received. The question for the industry is have all of the manufacturers guaranteed that all buyers have now had the made-up boiler tax repaid?"

Notes to editors:

1.  https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/press-release/energy-price-cap-will-rise-64-april
    
2. https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/clean-heat-market-mechanism-adjustment-to-scheme-introduction-date/clean-heat-market-mechanism-proposal-to-change-the-scheme-start-date-to-1-april-2025

For more information or for interview requests:

Jess Ralston, Head of Energy, ECIU, Tel: 07972 548503, email: jess.ralston@eciu.net